At present the typical teleworker in Finland is male, is well paid and is working in a professional or a managerial capacity. His pay and conditions of work are acceptable and teleworking has not been forced upon him. Teleworking is still fairly rare within the membership of SAK. It is most commonly in use in the service industries, in both the private and public sectors, by men who are in the under 45 age group. Nevertheless, this category of employee represents only some 20 per cent of the total number of senior professional and managerial male staff.

Teleworking is popular

There is a great deal of interest in teleworking. The group to which it has most appeal consists of those women who are less than 35 years of age. This applies to all employees, including the female members of SAK, of whom half would be prepared to spend at least some of their working hours in teleworking. The estimated potential of teleworking in Finland, ie the amount of work that could be transferred, at least partially, into this method of working, varies from 20 to 40 per cent in the different sectors of industry. The conclusion is obvious: teleworking is here to stay, it has become more common - according to Finnish research it has increased fivefold during the last decade - and it will continue to expand. The SAK members are not in the vanguard of this movement, but they are nevertheless taking part.

To date, teleworking has presented no problems as far as the terms and the conditions of work of the employee are concerned, since in the main it has meant that, for example, instead of working at the office the full-time employee has merely transferred some of the work from his office to his home. The salary is based directly on the main job of the employee and the time required for the work which is being performed at a distance can, in most cases, be reasonably well estimated. Teleworking may bring problems which relate to working conditions, for example one of ergonomics or of working in isolation, but these factors will be alleviated by the knowledge that in the majority of cases the teleworker may always return to a normal working routine.

But how will this work out in the future, with the cost of information technology falling steeply and communication networks constantly improving? Will work be transferred, to be done at home on a piecework basis, without the existence of clearly defined employment contracts or agreed terms and conditions of work? How will the teleworkers unionise? Who will represent the interests of these solitary individuals? There are now various forms of telephone selling, which alone constitutes a fast growing sector, although little is known either of the numbers of people involved in this new type of work or of their working conditions. What could the trade union movement, as represented by SAK, offer this group of people, some of whom may even work in the grey market?

Euro Telework Project

More research on teleworking is currently being undertaken. SAK is a participant, representing Finland, in the Euro Telework Project, an undertaking which aims to gather more information on the characteristics and the extent of telework, on the position of the teleworker and the associated terms and conditions of work in the EU countries and also in Norway. This project will continue for a period of one year and will produce information on the problems involved and on the best practices. In this way the experience gained by the trade union movement will supplement those research results from other sources.

The EU Commission is, in the near future, due to commence consultations on teleworking, with the organisations of both employers and employees. At present the European Trade Union Confederation, ETUC, which represents the employees' side, is gathering both information on the situation in teleworking and views on teleworking which have been put forward by its affiliated unions. Some years ago there was a certain scepticism within the Nordic trade union movement regarding EU level regulations on teleworking and whether such regulations would serve any good purpose. The conclusion was reached that a sufficiently firm foundation and a correct level for negotiating collective agreements had first to be established on a national basis for this sector, before any negotiations for these new forms of working practices could be successfully conducted in the widely varying circumstances in the EU area as a whole. In Denmark the first national teleworking agreements have now been signed, yet in Sweden for example, agreements for teleworkers have not yet extended beyond the company level. Now is the time for decisions, regarding the direction in which to proceed, to be taken by the Finnish trade union movement.